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USER-FRIENDLY TOILET ADDS JOY

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Those troublesome days have passed. I don’t have to dispose off my daughter’s excreta anymore. Now we have a toilet where she can defecate,” expresses Tilsari Rana, a resident of Surkhet district’s Koiralachula village Salkot VDC-3.

Tilsari, a mother of two daughters and a son, takes care of all her children alone as her husband is working overseas.

When people in the community got motivated in building toilets, Tilsari also managed to build one. Despite having a new toilet, she was deeply concerned about how the open defecation free (ODF) campaign would help her 12 year old daughter Amrita who had been disabled since birth. The newly built toilet at home was not appropriate for Amrita and she was really worried that she still needs to continue collecting her daughter’s faeces.

She got some hope when NEWAH consulted with her to design a disable friendly toilet. A local carpenter constructed the new disable friendly toilet with locally available materials by fixing a pan to a chair along with a roof. The users committee also provided some monetary support to her from the reward money received by the community after the ODF declaration.

Finally Tilsari got a big relief from her worries and she proudly says, “Now my Amrita can also use a toilet. This has improved our individual and household cleanliness and our life has become easier and comfortable.”

Man Bahadur Tarami, Chairperson of Koiralachula WASH Users Committee states, “The project has tried to be as socially inclusive as possible in providing its services to women, men, children, poor, elderly and differently abled people from all castes and classes in the community.”